


You're part of my crew (I think I might cry)

by NomadicSecret



Series: Sanguine [3]
Category: Firefly, The Avengers (2012), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Multi, everybody has a past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 04:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NomadicSecret/pseuds/NomadicSecret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony is inappropriate, Bruce is embarrassed, Pepper kinda likes where this is going, Natasha and Clint are bros, and Phil is worried about puberty. Thor is mostly interested in the pie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're part of my crew (I think I might cry)

**Author's Note:**

> This contains a time jump. The two pieces are sort of different in tone, and after the time jump, Bucky has joined them. That will be filled in separately, I just wanted to keep the Bruce-centric pieces together.

They set down on New Delhi as part of Thor’s explorations – no cargo, no job, just dust and a tiny little town of, as Tony put it “probably inbred idiot yokels”. Pepper coaxed her boyfriend into taking a walk anyway, and Phil and Clint flipped a coin to see whose turn it was to stay on the ship this time.

Natasha offered, tried to insist even, but Clint picked her up in a fireman’s carry and started walking off after Pepper and Tony. She was furious, and put up a struggle, but she couldn’t get free without seriously injuring him. Phil sat in the sun just outside the mouth of the cargo bay and watched as Clint put her down about a hundred metres later. She straightened her clothes with all the dignity a twelve-year-old could muster. Clint rubbed his arm, rotating the shoulder slowly, and Phil could only imagine what he was saying to the tiny former assassin. She still worked with them, but there were other moments when she seemed to let herself be a child, and if no one else was looking, she would snuggle into Clint’s side and let Phil read to them. (Phil was still terrified of her upcoming puberty. Thank fucking God for Pepper.) Natasha threw herself at Clint and they ended up tussling on the ground.

 

When Tony got interested in the mechanics of a machine that stretched into a mine, Pepper got worried. When the man who seemed to be in charge started walking over, that worry intensified despite the lovely view that was presented when he lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe his face.

“Tony,” she urged. “Please, _please_ do not let this be a repeat of Hammerworld.”

“Pep,” he said. “The asshole named the planet after himself. Nothing could be as spectacular as what happened on Hammerworld.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Pepper replied.

“Uh, hello,” the stranger said. “Who are you exactly?”

“I’m Tony, Bob’s cousin,” Tony said, adopting an expression that Pepper knew he thought approximated the intelligence of Bob’s cousin the local. “We don’t get into town much.” He gestured at Pepper. The stranger looked at her and she smiled sheepishly.

“I don’t like people who lie to me,” he said, his face hardening. “You’re off that gaudy Firefly that’s parked outside town. What do you want?”

“I wanted to put down on somewhere with civilisation,” Tony said. “But in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, you can’t always get what you want. This ventilation system, though, this is what I need. Who designed it?”

The man eyed him warily.

“Friends!” boomed Thor. “This is a most excellent place! I have conversed with stalwart men and their ladies, and eaten of their ‘pie’!”

“Pie? There’s pie? Where’s the pie?” Tony asked.

“I did,” said the stranger. Tony was immediately distracted from his quest for food.

“I want to have sex with your brain,” he said solemnly.

“Brother Tony!” Thor said, shocked. “Your fair maiden stands next to you. Foul enough to betray her, but to do it in her presence adds insult to injury.”

“It’s fine, Thor,” Pepper assured him. “If Tony wants to have sex with his brain, I’m more than happy to entertain the rest of him.”

“Also, she’s not a maiden,” Tony added helpfully.

The stranger blushed.

“Tell me everything!” Tony ordered.

“I – uh-”

“He means about the ventilation system,” Pepper explained. “But first maybe you could tell us your name?”

“I’m Bruce,” he said. There was an awkward pause where a last name should have been.

“Are you a fugitive too?” Tony asked. Bruce froze. “Dude, join the club! Thor isn’t exactly a fugitive, he just bankrolls us and comes along for kicks. I’m Tony Stark.”

“Stark?” Bruce repeated, his eyebrows disappearing into a mop of dusty, disheveled curls.

“See? I told you that I am known and beloved everywhere,” Tony said smugly.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Bruce said dryly. “It’s Banner. Dr. Bruce Banner. If you want to, ahem, discuss the shaft – ventilation shaft, I mean, then perhaps we could do it over tea?”

“That sounds absolutely lovely,” Pepper replied, taking his arm. “Your place or ours?”

Bruce refused to leave New Delhi, but he did tell them to come back anytime, and for once Tony wasn’t complaining.

 

Two years passed like that, circling back to New Delhi between jobs to see Bruce, who sometimes even managed to keep his clothes on long enough to socialise with the rest of the crew. He patched them up and fed them actual food and always seemed surprised when they returned again.

 

When the fed shot Pepper, Phil stayed with her and Tony for the entire time it took for Clint and Bucky to get them to New Delhi, then Natasha was gone on the mule at a speed it really shouldn’t have been able to reach but could thanks to Tony. If Thor had been with them, maybe he would have had some strings to pull, but family drama had called him back to Asgard temporarily. Pepper was paler than Phil knew anyone should be by the time Bruce got back to them. By that time Clint was sitting outside the crowded medbay. Natasha and Bucky sat with him, looking frightened and guilty.

With the aid of blood donations from both Clint and Bruce himself, Pepper was eventually declared out of the woods.  

“Okay,” Bruce said, sitting next to her with Tony’s hand clenched in his.

“Okay, what?” Phil asked, still washing up.

“Okay, I’ll come with you,” Bruce said. “If you’ll have me. I have something … I have to tell you, first. I can’t promise that I won’t become a danger to you. But I have some control over that, and if you had been any farther away, I wouldn’t have had control over this.” His voice cracked, and Phil laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“You can tell us whatever you want – tomorrow. Welcome to my crew, Doctor.”

 

When Pepper was ready, they all crammed into the infirmary, Bruce pacing in the doorway like he thought he might need to run for it.

“About a decade ago,” he said. “The Alliance was winning.”

“I remember,” Phil said. It had been an ugly, frightening time, but also an exciting one – he and Clint had just become partners.

“They weren’t just winning in the field. Defeating an insurgency takes more than that. They were winning with the people because they were drugging them. A gas that made them calm and complacent.” Bruce hesitated. “SHIELD felt they needed to sabotage that program. I was put on the project. I was young and reckless and thoroughly convinced that I was in a Manichean war, on the side of the angels.”

“Bruce,” Phil said gently. “You know where Clint and I come from, right?”

“All due respect, it’s not the same.”

“I did some really unpleasant things,” Clint said. “Even before SHIELD. For money.”

“Can you just stop, please?” Bruce asked. Everyone fell silent. “We developed another gas, one that would I be inert unless it encountered the Alliance gas, which it would neutralise. Fury wanted something _now_ , and I should have put my foot down, should have insisted on more testing, but I didn’t. The gas was put into the field, and there was an unforeseen consequence. Some of our information on the Alliance drug must have been flawed, or else we just made a mistake.”

Pepper reached for Tony’s hand. “Bruce, no matter what, we’ll still-”

“We created the Reavers,” he said finally.

“-love you,” Pepper finished weakly. There was a moment while everyone processed that.

“It made people hyper-aggressive,” Bruce said. “Not everyone, but … enough. I don’t know who it was who scorched the earth of the test planets. I didn’t want to know. I had enough blood on my hands.”

“We still love you,” Pepper repeated, as fierce as a person could be while too weak to sit without assistance and still pale from blood loss.

“I made a lot of weapons. Not by accident,” Tony added.

“We _are_ weapons,” said Natasha, glancing at Bucky.

“I’m an assassin,” Clint said.

 “Nobody here is a white knight,” Phil said. “We don’t save the damsel in distress. We show up to late and then burn the villain’s castle to the ground. We’re Avengers. And as far as I’m concerned, you’re still a part of my crew.”

Bruce nodded jerkily, his expression one of disbelief.

“All right then,” Tony said, dropping Pepper’s hand to rub his together. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

“You and Bucky can prep for take-off.” Clint stood and stretched his back. Bruce was too distracted to notice how Phil’s eyes jumped to the skin revealed when Clint’s shirt rucked up. “Phil can stay with Pep and I’ll go with Bruce to get his stuff. You wanna drive, shortstuff?”

“Were you not _listening_?” Natasha hissed, mortified every time Clint treated her like a normal child in front of Bucky.

“Suit yourself,” Clint shrugged, and walked out. Natasha waited a moment before hurrying after him.

“I didn’t say _no,_ ” they heard.


End file.
